Arrest made in Newark cabbie's killing

View full sizeFrances Micklow/The Star-LedgerFriends and family flock to the house of Rochenel Guerrier, 49, in Irvington Saturday, after he was shot and killed driving his cab in Newark the night before.

NEWARK — The alleged killer of a city cabbie was captured Tuesday, while riding in a taxicab, authorities said.

Jashon Johnson was arrested about 4 p.m., three days after the slaying of Rochenel Guerrier, 49, of Irvington, when undercover U.S. marshals who had been watching a residence on Stratford Place spotted him getting into a cab, said Michael Schroeder, a spokesman for the U.S. Marshals Service.

While following the cab in an unmarked car, the marshals alerted Newark police, who swept in and stopped the cab about a mile away at Irvine Turner Boulevard and Springfield Avenue, Schroeder said.

More than a dozen marked and unmarked vehicles surrounded the green cab, while Newark officers arrested Johnson, according to witness accounts and Schroeder. The spokesman did not have an age or hometown for Johnson.

Guerrier was a father of five who had been driving his taxi on city streets for some two decades. Just after 5 a.m. Saturday morning, police found Guerrier gravely wounded by gunshots inside his taxi in the Forest Hill neighborhood. The cabbie was pronounced dead at the scene.

View full sizeStar-Ledger StaffRochenel Guerrier, 49, center, with his wife, left, and daughter, right. Photo copied in Irvington on Saturday. Guerrier was shot and killed driving his cab in Newark the night before.

"He was a great man. He had a sensitive heart," said Kerrine Guerrier, a daughter, on Saturday afternoon.

Kerrine Guerrier said that although her father was dedicated to his wife and children, he often drove seven days a week, just to make sure he could provide as much as he could for his family.

Although his wife tried to talk her husband out of the taxi business because of Newark’s crime rate, Kerrine said, he kept at it.

"He said he’s going to take a risk," she said. "And that’s what cost him his life."

Kerrine said that although she and her family and friends are devastated, they will do what he would want.

"We’re going to celebrate his life more than mourn his life," she said.

A friend of Rochenel’s since he was in his teens and now a fellow taxi driver, Wilbens Jean-Louis said he and Guerrier, with whom he played soccer in their native Haiti, were part of an extended fraternity on the streets.

But the profession has become noticeably more dangerous recently, with robberies a common occurrence and violence against drivers also increasing, said Jean-Louis, 39.

"Driving a cab in Newark, that’s tough," he said. "But it’s something where you can make a living."